Grand Rapids – Adoption Counseling

Children’s Adoption Counseling

Adoption Counseling: When it is Beneficial and Who it Benefits

There are many reasons that parents may consider adopting a child, and no matter what the reason is for choosing adoption, there will be many challenges that both the parents and the child have to overcome. Adoption Counseling is beneficial for the adoptee, the birth parents, and the adoptive parents, during both the Pre-Adoption and Post-Adoption stages.

During the Pre-Adoption stage all parties may experience an array of negative emotions. The birth parent may experience uncertainty, grief, guilt, or depression as they put their child up for adoption. Adoptive parents may have feelings such as being scared, nervous, grief for the reason they couldn’t have their own child, or stress about adding onto their family. The adoptee will also have feelings or uncertainty, sadness, fear, anger, confusion, and many others as they are given up by one parent and taken in by another.

There are numerous issues that can benefit from Adoption Counseling during the Post-Adoption stage. The adoptee and birth parent may continue to feel a sense of loss and need help working through their feeling of separation. Children will have to work on developing a sense of trust with their new parents and create a relationship with them. Especially children an abusive or other traumatizing past may need help facilitating these relationships. Children may struggle with questions of why they were put up for adoption in the first place or who they really are. All parties can be expected to feel some sort of stress from the adoption and may need help coping with this stress in a healthy way. Therapists, Counselors, Psychotherapists, and Psychologists at each of our locations can help you handle this step in your life in a healthy way in order to have a successful outcome.

Approaches to Adoption Counseling

The main goals of Adoption Counseling is to help the adoptee, the birth parent, and the adoptive parents navigate through their emotions, adjust to their new lifestyle, and ensure that the child is happy and safe in their new home. Adoptive Counseling may work with only the child, only the adoptive parents, only the biological parent, both sets of parents, or with the child and the adoptive parents. Depending on who is involved in the Adoptive Counseling, one of the following approaches may be used.

Play Therapy is often used when young children are involved and are unable to verbally communicate their feelings. Professionals use games and toys to help children act out their thoughts and feelings.
Family Therapy involves the participation of the entire family and looks at the family and the relationships within it as a whole. The goal of approach to Adoption Counseling is to help the family create a balance between the needs of all individuals and the needs of the family as a whole.
Behavior Modification is helpful if family is experiencing stress due to behavioral problems after the adoption. While there is a good chance the behavior is not a result of the adoption, this type of Adoption Counseling can still help foster a change in behavior through a use of rewards, and helping children understand their emotions.